Refocus: The Films of Wallace Fox - (Refocus: The American Directors) by Gary D Rhodes & Joanna Hearne (Paperback)

About the Book

Offers the first collection of critical essays on Wallace Fox, one of Hollywood's first Native American film directors

Book Synopsis

Born in Oklahoma into the Chickasaw Nation, Wallace Fox directed films over the span of four decades. Known primarily for Westerns and mystery films, his output starred such famed actors as Bela Lugosi, Bob Steele, and Lon Chaney. ReFocus: The Films of Wallace Fox includes analysis of some of his best known films, including Wild Beauty, Gun Town, The Corpse Vanishes, Bowery at Midnight, Career Girl and Brenda Starr, Reporter. It reclaims the history and artistry of this major talent.

From the Back Cover

Born in Oklahoma into the Chickasaw Nation, Wallace Fox directed films over the span of four decades. Known primarily for Westerns and mystery films, his output starred such famed actors as Bela Lugosi, Bob Steele, and Lon Chaney. ReFocus: The Films of Wallace Fox rigorously analyses of some of his most prominent films, including Wild Beauty, Gun Town, The Corpse Vanishes, Bowery at Midnight, Career Girl, and Brenda Starr, Reporter. It reclaims the history and artistry of this major talent. Edited by Dr Gary D. Rhodes is Head of Film & Mass Media at University of Central Florida. He is the author of The Birth of the American Horror Film (2017), Lugosi (1997), White Zombie: Anatomy of a Horror Film (2002), Emerald Illusions: The Irish in Early American Cinema (2012) and The Perils of Moviegoing in America (2012). He is editor of Expressionism in the Cinema (2016) and co-series editor of ReFocus: The American Directors Series and ReFocus: The International Directors series. Rhodes is also the writer-director of the documentary films Lugosi: Hollywood's Dracula (1997) and Banned in Oklahoma (2004). Joanna Hearne is the Jeanne Hoffman Smith Professor in the Film and Media Studies department at University of Oklahoma. Her books on Indigenous images and image-making in American film history include Native Recognition: Indigenous Cinema and the Western and Smoke Signals: Native Cinema Rising.

Review Quotes

This ambitiously wide-ranging collection of film essays examines and reevaluates the work of forgotten B-movie director Wallace Fox.--Courtney Fellion "Western American Literature"

Wallace Fox, a forgotten B-movie director who was one of the first Indigenous filmmakers to establish a career in American cinema, receives the Refocus treatment! Gary D. Rhodes and Joanna Hearne bring together eleven brilliant chapters that do much more than fill in a gap in film history; they expand and often rewrite it!--Yannis Tzioumakis, University of Liverpool

About the Author

Gary D. Rhodes is Professor of Media, Oklahoma Baptist University. He is the author of Emerald Illusions: The Irish in Early American Cinema (2012), The Perils of Moviegoing in America (2012), and The Birth of the American Horror Film (2018). He is a founding editor of Horror Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal. Rhodes is also the writer-director of the documentary films Lugosi: Hollywood's Dracula (1997) and Banned in Oklahoma (2004).

Joanna Hearne is the Jeanne Hoffman Smith Professor in the Film and Media Studies department at the University of Oklahoma. Her books on Indigenous images and image-making in American film history include Native Recognition: Indigenous Cinema and the Western (2012) and Smoke Signals: Native Cinema Rising (2012).